The Nightshade Affair
by JyrFalcon345
Summary: "We were all told that Cerenia was destroyed by a rogue element of Andross's fleet. That is what we were told and what we believed. But it is not the truth. Not entirely."  please review
1. Chapter 1

The Nightshade Affair

"_I will admit that certain elements within the military's higher reaches did commit acts that will in future generations be judged as reprehensible. But I can only say in response that we did what was required to ensure the safety of the Lylatian people and the technological primacy of it's armed forces. _

_All other concerns were secondary."_

_Mielkhan Stravius- former High commander of Lylatian Military Affairs."_

The sky has seen fit to burn a bright and searing shade of orange today, and I am reminded that fall is only just around the corner, and that soon the thigh length black skirt, dark red shirt and sneakers I am wearing will have to be exchanged for something heavier- we salukis don't have much in the way of fur.

That was hours ago however, and it's still warm enough that I can enjoy the evening breeze and allow myself to relax. I can't afford to look suspicious. The hyena I've been tailing for the last hour and a half, passed me about fifteen minutes ago at a brisk trot, heading for his house. It's a quaint, almost shabby little thing and I've come to know it quite well-I know the basic room layout, entrances and exits, as well as the security code for the residence. I know because it's my job.

The house seems out of place by lylatian standards especially when one considers the seven figure incomes of most individuals who live in this block of the city. The outer walls are of hand placed brick and stone inlay, windows are rounded glass, the wooden door is weathered in a pleasant sort of way,-there's actually a chimney as well.

The chimney is what I'm focoused on now, and the closer I get to it, the closer I get to the entrance of the house and to my quarry. The guy's young, maybe early to mid twenties, carrying a briefcase and wearing a slightly worn suit. Somewhat quiet. Doesn't party or club very much, something of an older soul trapped in a young ones body.

Looking at him now as I approach, I see that he's sitting on the steps, a cell phone gripped in his hand. Papers are strewn in the entranceway, and there are brown skidmarks on the flagstones from where furniture legs scraped against the ground.

"Excuse me sir…are you alright?"

He doesn't look at me for a moment.

"I need a phone."

"I'm sorry, mine's dead at the moment…what happened…?"

I let my voice trail off, trying not to feel guilty about how I've just lied to this guy, whose probably no older than I am.

"Some people must have coded the lock and just….raided my house…I…"

He trailed off, and I sat down next to him remaining quiet for a few moments. Then.

"Dr Hermastine…I'm afraid that I may have something to do with that."

His stare is blank, and so I decide to continue before his mind releases the clutch and anger kicks in. The last thing I need is violence, but I'm prepared for it.

"Doctor Julious Hermastine, I have been sent by a branch of Lylatian intelligence to collect you in order to assist with the psychological evaluation of an individual who might possess knowledge which would allow our fleets to blaze a path to Andross's front door. The war could be over by next year. But we need your help."

And then…

"You really think I'm going to believe you? Here's what I think: I think you're some drug snorting just out of college spy school reject whose just smart enough to get some friends under her sway, hack the lock and invade my home. And to keep me from calling the police you invent some jack leg story about the war to pick on my patriotic sensibilities. Not gonna happen. Now you've got five minutes to call your shitfaced buddies, return my stuff, or I swear I will have the cops all over your ass."

Part of me wants to slap him. But instead, I just decide to resort to the old governmental standby-fear.

"You know…I was the one who recommended that we approach you in a different manner. I'm a bit of an old soul in my profession I guess…civility is a dying instinct amongst the military, especially during a conflict such as this. Ordinarily they would have sent a SWAT team into your house in the dead of night, thrown a bag over your head and marched you out of the house at gunpoint. "

I removed a small necklace from around my neck and flashed the pendant on the end briefly. His eyes narrowed in confusion.

"That's what we are. That's what I am. I don't want to have to hurt you, or show you what lengths I'll go to to ensure the safety of this planet…but I will if I have to. The government will pay you very well for your services and you are going where your things are. All of your assets will be handled by our finance teams and your house will be under military protection to ensure that no 'drug snorting spy school rejects' like myself steal your wallpaper."

As if on qeue a black unmarked SUV pulled into the driveway, xenon headlamps ablaze, the microfusion engine beneath the hood whining insistently. The driver got out, a powerfully built grey wolf in business attire wearing a pair of black driving gloves.

"Trust me doctor, she's the real deal, I wouldn't be working with her if she wasn't. Now please get in, we need you at the spaceport in three hours."

The hyena sighed and got to his feet, picking up the briefcase as he did so. I followed him to the car and we both got in, buckling up as we slid out of the drive. I turned to him.

"How much do you know about mercenaries or say telepathy?"

He gave me another blank look.

" Consider this your lucky day."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

About an hour and a half after we'd left the community Julious finally turned to me and said in a hesitant tone: "You know…I don't think I ever got your name…"

"Gloria."

"Ah."

There was then a period of silence, during which I checked my watch, stared at the traffic ahead and quietly avoided his apologetic gaze. Yes I was behaving more like a stereotypical female in that I was stringing him along and being testy, I just wanted to make sure that _he_ was the one who started the apology. Then as if on cue:

"Listen I'm sorry about back there when…I said… called you…"

"A drug snorting spy school reject?" I didn't try to keep the smile out of my voice as I let myself meet his gaze. He seemed genuinely remorseful, and I got the sense that he wasn't the sort to really let his anger show if he could help it. One of those types who retained a cool head in almost all situations…but if you got him angry enough…

"Listen, it's alright. Stuff like that comes with the territory and with the position. And it's not like you didn't have a right to be angry. What we did was fundamentally wrong. Most agents won't admit that. I'm not one of them. I'll do what I have to, but that doesn't mean I always feel good about it."

"Do you do things like this on a regular basis?"

"You mean orchestrating the capture and transfer of psychotherapists from one locale to the next? No I don't."

I'm not telling him anything more before you start asking. And I'm not telling you anything either, there's such a thing as 'need to know' and at this point, he officially does not. It's right then that the drivers cell goes off. The wolf reaches into his pocket and has the clamshell open and pressed to his ear in a single movement. Then he starts talking:

"Yes sir…we've got him and we're currently in transition, we should arrive on time. Yes, I assume so sir, but with all due respect traffic sucks. Duly noted."

He closes the phone as we hit an off ramp and accelerate again. It's an odd transition, going from standard highway driving to stop and go traffic with all of it's annoyances, but somehow we made it through the main cityscape to the spaceport beyond.

"We've been given clearance to go directly onto the tarmack…see that ship out there?" He pointed at a bulky double hulled military shuttle docked to a series of fuel and atmospheric tanks on the launch pad.

"That's the one that's going to insert you into the main convoy formation, you'll be riding it all the way to Altruisia 7."

"What's Altruisia seven?"

"It's a mining complex Julius. And that's all I can say until we get on the shuttle."

The vehicle screeched to a halt and I leapt out, cracking my back briefly before heading for the boarding ramp. An interesting thing: the movies, you know the ones made before they started up space travel and all that, well, they make it out like there are windows all over the ships that you can see out of. Either some mythical clear substance that doesn't shatter when exposed to the vacuum of space, or force fields. Needless to say we haven't gotten that far yet. Almost all ships use a form of V.D.R.T.= Visual Data Relay Technology, to allow their pilots to see into the inky blackness of space. Granted there isn't usually much to see, and so most pilots simply fly by Virtual HUD and instrumentation using the internal viewscreens only during docking or an emergency.

The exterior of the shuttle is just one smooth blanket of hull plating beneath interlocking plates of orange Hermes class hyperspace armor. Lead composite armor and anti-rad shielding are the only things that can really handle the tetra waves and gamma ray blasts that spaceships get during each trip, but even that doesn't get away easy. The radiation and ionic spikes are so strong that it literally bends the physical bonds of the lead until it's about as radiation proof as a paper bag. So the plates have to be removed and 'reproofed' every hundred light years or so- they strip the plates and use quantum waveform mold accelerators to pull the plates back into a usable form. It's big business from what I'm told.

The MP's guarding the shuttle salute us as we climb up, and I snap one back without losing a step. The inside of the two seater vessel is cramped and painted a disheartening shade of gunmetal grey. Most of the rear of the craft is taken up by engine modules, hyperspace transmission pods and all of it flanking an energy core.

Julius flops down into the co-pilots seat and begins fumbling with the straps overhead. I'm tempted to just stand there and watch him hang himself but because that wouldn't be especially nice I reach up and begin methodically buckling him in, cinching the straps tight.

"You just aren't very good with this stuff are you?"

"I barely know how to drive really. Public transportation makes it relatively easy to get around planetside. Are you qualified to fly this thing?"

I reached up and buckled myself in, cracking my knuckles before opening the metal covering over the main power breakers and switching them to the 'active' position. As the main reactor engaged and the plasmatic conduits began to fill with power I said:

"All agents in our organization are trained to fly craft ranging from civilian vessels to advanced military strike craft. So yeah, I think so."

As the power levels flickered to green I began engaging systems, life support, the main sensor array and gravity generators came to life with a deep throbbing hum. I turned the communications array online and airport chatter spilled over the radio, blaring sharply in my ears before I reduced the headset volume. In seconds I'd switched to channel seven and started the broadcast.

"Attention control tower one this is civilian shuttle ID A-34D-7 preparing for atmospheric entry and transfer to fleet control. Requesting that you monitor ascent and notify convoy of imminent arrival."

"We copy A-3. Happy trails."

The view from the 23 inch view screen began to slowly shift upward as the platform pitched to a 45 degree angle of attack. Fuel and atmospheric lines attached to the vehicle's rear disengaged and the exterior hatchway sealed itself as I primed the hydrogen pulse jets for ignition.

"This is safe right?"

I looked over at him before engaging the internal communications line.

"You're gonna be fine. Trust me. Just sit back and enjoy the ride."

"_Shuttle A-3 this is ground control, you may begin ascent."_

"Beginning ignition in three, two, one…mark."

"_click."_

Five seconds later we were at a thousand feet and climbing, shaking hard enough to rattle our teeth from our sockets at first, but then settling as the ship's anti vibration compensators engaged. In the display I could see our ascent course plotted directly ahead, a series of tunnel like rings which began to rotate slowly as we began a slow roll toward the planet.

Julius's eyes were tightly shut. He didn't look sick, but it didn't take a genius to see that his heart was going a mile a minute.

"Hey, you. Open your eyes, we're in the upper atmosphere. If I can pull up the rear visual array…ah, here we go. Look."

The hyena opened his eyes. His jaw dropped, and I started smiling in spite of myself. Light was everywhere. Zigzagging patterns of it, spirals…lines of traffic far far below. It always chokes me up.

"That's what we're fighting to save. Last thing I want is for us to be brought under Andross's heel…to see all that beauty snuffed out. So…I do what I do."

"Even if it isn't always right?"

I didn't respond.

"Fleet control this is shuttle A-3 requesting permission to join convoy designation 1190 en route to Altrusia seven please respond.

"Roger, fly up and get into position A-3. Notifying escorts."

I grabbed hold of the flight stick and throttle and pulsed the shuttle's engines briefly, angling for the box formation 'above' me.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm not obligated to tell you anything. There is no right and wrong in this world, there are only shades of gray. Only degrees of right and wrong. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Fifteen minutes of torture could save hundreds of lives. I've done it before and-"

"Gloria."

The voice stopped me in mid sentence, and my blood ran cold. I managed to keep my face straight as I switched the call over to a private line.

"Bring him to the complex so that we can begin. Time is a factor. His every need is to be seen to, if he asks for something, grant it. He is to contact no one. If he does you are to eliminate him without hesitation. Are we clear?"

"Yes…yes fleet command. We're getting into position now."

The line went dead and I felt the seat return beneath me. Julius was looking at me with an all too knowing stare.

"Something tells me you just heard something you either weren't expecting, or didn't want to hear."

"That was fleet command relaying positioning instructions."

Even I knew that was a lie.

"Bullshit. What did they tell you? We're in the shuttle, no one here but me, you and god. Talk."

His balls must have gained a size.

"Now, you listen to me, I'm not obligated to tell you-"

"You grab me out of my house in the middle of the night, whisk me off in an unmarked shuttle to some backwater planet for some task you refuse to talk about and you dare preach to me about an obligation? Fuck obligation, what about doing the decent thing and throwing me a bone."

I glared at him for a long moment.

"If you try to contact anyone family friends, associates, your girlfriend from the second grade dance, I'm to find you and kill you without hesitation."

His ears slowly flattened.

" This isn't a game Dr Hermastine. It's deadly serious."

This is fleet Command to all units, prepare to jump in five seconds. Five, four, three, two…

We jumped.


End file.
